Craig Meagher (pronounced ‘Marr’) certainly has an impressive career history. As well as some senior corporate leadership roles, his past sports related roles include CEO of the Sydney Kings National Basketball League team, General Manager of the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust and National Marketing Manager for the Australian Rugby Union.
But now he’s taking on perhaps his biggest challenge, to turn around the relatively anaemic Bicycle New South Wales membership number of around 14,000. That’s around a third the size of the Victorian headquartered Bicycle Network which set up a NSW office a few years ago and has been competing hard for members.
Bicycling Trade caught up with Craig Meagher at the recent 40th anniversary dinner for Bicycle NSW, which was held in Newcastle where he was officially introduced to members.
Bicycling Trade: Why did you take the job?
Craig Meagher: Because I felt that what Bicycle NSW wanted to do was a good natural fit for some of my previous skill sets and experiences. I know the chairman, Jon Leighton, and I was on the board of Bicycle NSW several years ago, so I have a little bit of knowledge of the inner workings of the operation. It seemed to be a nice new challenge for me.
The board and the staff have changed quite dramatically since I was on the board so from that respect the business has a new foundation already and I guess it’s my role now to build a new house on this new foundation.
BT: What do you want to achieve?
CM: What the organisation tries to do in terms of creating a better environment for cyclists is a great vision to have, but we’re not strong enough as an organisation to really get the result we want. We need to build our organisation to have a stronger voice. We need to be more important so we’ve got a bigger say. How do we get a bigger say? We get more members. We have to grow membership.
I’ve worked in a lot of different businesses where membership was a key focus both existing members are important but new members are very important. There’s 1.2 million people who ride a bike in NSW at least once a week and we certainly don’t have all of them as members yet we possibly should have a great majority of them.
BT: How long do you think you’ll stay?
CM: As long as I’m being able to be given opportunities to grow the organisation. As long as the board has trust in what I’m trying to achieve, that’s all. I don’t really have a time frame as such. My last role I had 18 months to turn something around and I got it done in six. This you can’t turn around in six.
BT: That was the Sydney Kings?
CM: Yes, that was a great result.
BT: It would seem a bit of a demotion to run Bicycle NSW, or at the very least a pay cut?
CM: No not at all. It depends on what I can achieve in the business. For me you’ve got to be able to get up and enjoy what you’re doing that’s the important thing. You get paid once a month but you go to work every day so that’s how I need look at it. I’ve got a very good chairman. I don’t necessarily look at what an organisation does, I look at what I can achieve for that organisation. I also look at who I will be working with and for because people join companies and they leave because of who they work with or work for.
BT: Your cycling personal connection over the years, have you had much?
CM: None at all.
I don’t need to have it because I’m here to run a business and I’m here to run an organisation that needs to grow membership. It needs to run events. It needs to have a seat around the table in government and these are the things I’ve done before.
I won’t get that by sitting on a bike and pedalling. I’ve got plenty of other people that can do that. Do I need to mix with those people? Yes absolutely. They don’t want me up the back of the pack. The guy who runs the golf tour isn’t a golfer. The guy that runs the tennis tour doesn’t play tennis. I don’t have to ride a bike to do a great job.
I’m not going to be judged on how many k’s I ride. I’ll be judged on how many members we have now and how many members we’ll have in a year’s time. What events we have now and what events we’ll be running in a year’s time, that’s how I’ll get judged. I won’t get that done riding a bike.
BT: Given that you’re not a rider and you were on the board before, what motivated you to be on the board?
CM: Pretty much the same reason I took the role as the CEO. I believe in what we’re trying to achieve. I believe in making riders safe, connecting cycleways, having a voice with government. I believe in all that totally.
BT: Do you think any of your contacts along the way that you’ve made over the decades are going to come in handy in this role?
CM: Yes they will definitely come in handy. I’ve contacts around memberships, sponsorship, government that will come in very handy.
BT: What role do you think the bicycle industry should play?
CM: For me I’d like everyone who buys a bike to become a member. Quite simply that’s when you’re most likely thinking about a membership is when you make a purchase.
So you’re buying a bike ,why not buy Bicycle NSW membership? You get your insurance. You’re obviously buying a bike because you want to ride, but there’s a disconnect there, and I think we’ve got to create that connection.
When you get a new car the first thing you think about is getting insurance. When you get a bike you’re not thinking about getting bike insurance or Bicycle NSW membership and we’ve got to create that. So I would like the industry to support us, because ultimately what we’re trying to do is get more people to ride a bike and the more people that ride a bike ultimately means more bike sales.
BT: Would you be open to giving the industry a cut, say the dealer gets $10 per new member or whatever?
CM: Absolutely. The more members the better because ultimately that’s what we’re about a stronger voice.
BT: That would be a first if you did that.
CM: Absolutely, I’ll do it tomorrow if they want to come and talk to me.
We’re flat lining at best. Membership hasn’t grown that much. Events are pretty much the same. To do the same thing all the time you’ll get the same result all the time. That’s why I’m here and that’s why I am different, I make no apology that I’m different.
Are my ideas going to be different to the last person? Yes they probably will be. But let’s give that a try, let’s be open minded and let’s see if we can get more members, let’s help the industry, let’s get more people on bikes riding.
